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Intro (Delia)
The world is different from that as we know it in two ways: First and foremost, it takes place on an “Alternate Earth.” An Earth AU, if you will. That is, it is like Earth, but with some great variation in the basic shapes and rules of things as compared to those of our Earth. More specifically, the continents and tectonic plates have formed differently. Also, people on this world have a sense aside from the basic five sight-hearing-touch-smell-taste combination. That is, they have a sense of absence, or of something missing. In addition, mythopoeic thought is not only a common way of coming to understand how the universe works, but really is the way things work. Everything really is personified, animate, as a “they” rather than an “it.” Mythopoeic thought not only originates as the default way of perceiving, explaining, and understanding one's surroundings and the world they live in—the mythopoeic worldview remains a permanent fixture. Even after people begin to divide their perception of things into separate categories of “real” and “fictional,” everything—regardless of whether it was categorized as “real” or “fictional” remained alive, intelligent and personified. Concepts and entities wouldn't suddenly drop their individual personalities and turn to dull, inanimate objects overnight—or ever, for that matter. It is through mythopoeic thought that all complete, whole, and/or known things possess (and have always possessed—there are no “inanimate objects” without sentience, etc.) sapience, movement, life, and the ability to communicate through language, as all actions in a mythopoeic world are personified and deliberately willed to happen (things do not simply occur; they are willed to happen, or choose to occur. The mythopoeic world view makes things anthropomorphize (in both real and fictional realms), with everything as anthropomorphic, living, sapient, and concrete, with all actions acted out and deliberately willed to happen in a personifying manner. There are no objects, nor is there any concept of inanimacy). Things can only gain/acquire sentience and an individual sense of self if they are parts of a whole that collectively make up a hive-mind consciousness, and later become singled out from the group or highlighted as specifically important. Parts of a whole or unknown things—unlike the whole that they make up—do not have any sense of self on the individual level, but instead have a hive-mind consciousness due to their status as not being individually important enough to stand out alone, yet still needed as part of the group in order to come together to form the whole. Hive-minded things gain sentience after they are discovered, or singled out from the group. In instances when this discovery is highlighted, talked about, etc., the formerly hive-minded parts become individually-minded, which leads to huge changes within organisms (free-thinking, rebellious cells or components sprouting up absolutely everywhere after they’ve been mentioned, due to historical discovery of cells/that organisms are made up of cells). The real-fictional divide and the subsequent change to "divided" as the modal view From the origin of the fictional realm and the widespread perception of “real” and “fictional” as separate concepts, the predominance of mythopoeic thought begins to wane. Eventually, the pervasiveness of a real-fictional dichotomy becomes worldwide. With the shining exception of the Channelers of Liminality and those who want to escape reality in the present day, the separation of real and fictional becomes a cultural universal. Creations are perceived to occur and co-exist within an entirely separate environment than that of their creator and audience. However, even though the lack of real-fictional divide remains only as a relic of the Channelers of Liminality and people who seek to escape reality, the original effects of mythopoeic thought still remain and will continue to remain, regardless of how people's perceptions regarding the world around them may have changed. Every whole and individually distinct aspect of the outside environment remains animate and sapient, even though almost no one still considers them as such. Things are not 'it's rather than 'they's; actions are not now viewed in an impersonal, abstract manner rather than a concrete, personifying manner—things do not simply happen, rather than choosing or willing themselves to happen). Mythopoeic thought remains dominant as a way of perceiving the world to work—and of how it actually works. Category:Channelers of Liminality verse